Could Ukraine hold a presidential vote amid peace talks?
A look back at the day U.S. President Donald Trump linked a new Ukrainian presidential election to a peace deal, as talks with Russia opened in Riyadh.
What happens to Ukraine's elections if a peace deal is struck? On 18 February 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump put the question on the table by calling for a new presidential election in Ukraine as part of a peace deal with Russia.
The diplomatic setting
The call came as Russian–American talks got under way in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio led a delegation that included National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. A Russian source had reported that the meeting would take place on 18 February, with Russia's side expected to include Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov and SVR Director Sergey Naryshkin.
On 17 February, Lavrov said that Europe had no role in any peace negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine. Together, the two developments framed the talks as a channel between Washington and Moscow, with the question of Ukraine's political future raised on the American side.
The legal constraint
The demand ran into Ukraine's existing legal position. Presidential elections had been scheduled for March or April 2024, but none were held: martial law has been in effect since 24 February 2022, and Ukrainian law does not allow presidential elections while it lasts. Parliament has approved extensions in 90-day intervals. Later, the 20th extension carried martial law to 31 October 2026.
What it meant
The link Trump drew placed an electoral question inside a negotiation over ending the war. Under the legal framework in place on 18 February 2025, a new vote would depend on martial law no longer being in effect, and the war was still under way. The talks in Riyadh, from which Europe was said by Lavrov to be excluded, were the first setting in which such terms might be discussed.
